5 Tips to Keep Warm in a Tent

A nice glass of wine or whiskey to warm the cockles on a cold winter’s night might seem like the perfect pairing. Hey, in a cozy cabin with a roaring fire, go for it! However, this combination can be detrimental to keeping your core temperature at a comfortable and safe level when you’re out in the cold.

Your body’s natural response to cold air and freezing temperatures is to shiver. However, the consumption of alcohol actually prevents your body from shivering, eliminating its ability to warm itself.

Plus, (double-whammy here) alcohol makes the blood vessels close to your skin expand. This is why you’ll often feel warmer after a glass of whiskey, but all that blood is actually cooling down real quick at the surface, then going back to your core a whole lot colder (speeding up possible hypothermia!).

While a hot drink is perfect for warming cold hands and slow sipping when winter camping, any sort of coffee, tea or other caffeinated beverages have a similar blood vessel dilating effect as alcohol. The caffeine actually circulates cold blood flowing in your body, making it difficult to keep warm in your tent. Opt for a nice cup of hot chocolate or decaf tea instead!

A sleeping pad makes all the difference when you’re making friends with the tent floor. Not only do they make things more comfortable, they also offer much needed insulation to keep the cold ground from sucking the warmth right out of you. This is especially true for pads with a high R-Value.

R-Value is a unit of measurement that denotes the level of heat transfer and insulation in camping equipment. With sleeping pads, the higher the R-Value, the greater the heat retention and insulation for your body, meaning less chance that your body loses heat to the ground.

If you’re looking to purchase a sleeping pad, seasonal temperatures will be a deciding factor for the R-value, as this will determine how much heat you will need to retain. An R-Value of 0.5 to 0.7 is ideal for lighter insulation, or something to serve as a skinnier air mattress for added comfort. Likewise, an R-Value over 3.0 is best for nights in the 40 to 60-degree range.

(Pssst — if you’re looking to buy a sleeping pad of your own, we love the Big Agnes ZoomUL Insulated Sleeping Pad. We use this pad for our Yosemite backpacking trip.)

Small tent? No problem – cozy up with your tent buddy to keep warm!

Shared body warmth is one of the most common ways of keeping warm in a tent, and is also quite common in nature – penguins are often seen huddled together in cold climates. The more body heat, the more warm air is produced, the faster you’ll be falling asleep!

For campers who don’t mind the close proximity, a double sleeping bag is a great option. You’ll be cooking up a hot tent in no time – maybe in more ways than one depending on your tent compadre.

Hot water bottles have been used for hundreds of years as a method for keeping warm and winter camping trips are no exception.

Creating your own hot water bottle is easy to do in a pinch with your regular camping gear — boil hot water on your camp stove and fill your hard water bottle (Nalgenes work great for this) with that warm goodness. Wrap that sucker up in a layer to avoid burning yourself, then put it at the bottom of your sleeping bag or in between your legs. By placing the hot water bottle between your legs, it reaches your femoral artery, the main vessel for supplying blood to your lower body.

Nobody likes hitting the hay only to find their bed cold. Thanks a lot, lackluster sleeping bags.

Your sleeping bag should be properly outfitted for the season, hence a cold-weather sleeping bag for winter (we like Big Agnes’ Women’s Torchlight 30). Plus, a good sleeping bag liner can help wick away sweat and keep body heat from escaping even more.

Purchasing a sleeping bag that is 10 to 15 degrees lower than the temperature you expect to encounter, can really help in making sure you’re equipped for all temperatures.